An honest Gather ’Round Christmas review of the First Christmas homeschool unit, including what we loved, what’s included, and who it’s best for.
Every December, I feel that familiar pull to slow down, take a deep breath, and refocus our homeschool on the true meaning of Christmas. School doesn’t stop during the holiday season, but it does shift. This year, we used Gather ’Round Homeschool’s First Christmas curriculum, and I wanted to share an honest review for families searching for a meaningful Gather Round Christmas option that works for the entire family.
This special unit felt less like “school” and more like spending time together, reading good books, having conversations, and building new traditions during the month of December. If that sounds like what you are looking for, let’s get started.
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What Is Gather ’Round Homeschool?
If you’re new here, Gather ’Round Homeschool is a unit study–based curriculum designed for the whole family, from early reader through high school. Instead of juggling multiple subjects and grade levels, everyone studies the same topic of the unit, just at the right levels.
I’ve made a previous video/blog post about why we switched and a full review of the curriculum. Use the buttons below to view. The simplest explanation that I could offer is that our homeschool family currently thrives on more child-directed learning. Unit studies provide that for us.
Each regular unit (and special unit) includes:
- Teacher’s guide
- Student notebooks (Pre-Reader, Early Reader, Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School
- Free Resources on their free app (video links, MP3 lessons, pdf downloads, reading lists, certificates, and more)
- Seatwork – only included in some units
- Some units also come with flashcards, posters, and coloring books.
The First Christmas unit is a part of their mini units series. This means it’s not quite as robust as the other full units. Each unit also comes with a free lesson if you want to give it a try and see the format.
You can choose a full bundle in a digital download, or get the physical workbook/student books and teachers guide delivered to your home.
The First Christmas Unit Study
The unit is designed to last 2-3 weeks, depending on if you do a 5-day school week or a 4-day school week. We opted for a 3-week schedule with an additional co-op day.
The First Christmas unit is a special unit created specifically for the Christmas season. Unlike the 4–5 week full units, this one is designed to guide your family through December gently without overwhelm.
This Christmas unit really slows things down in the best way. Instead of rushing through the story, it walks through the Christmas story by focusing on each person involved—like the Wise Men—and helps your kids actually understand who they were and why they mattered. It gently layers in the historical and biblical context of the first Christmas without feeling heavy or overwhelming. Everything keeps pointing back to the true meaning of Christmas and the gospel, which I so appreciate during a season that can feel really busy and distracting.
Each lesson in the student workbooks starts with a coloring page that corresponds to the lesson. My boys colored these while they listened to me read the lesson. Another consistent item was that each week had a Christmas hymn to play and study. We really enjoyed that and I even brought out my old guitar a few times.
We particularly liked the lesson that went into those hidden symbols of Christmas and how they point back to Jesus and the Bible. There were actually two lessons on this, and they covered the hidden means of items like the candy cane, the Christmas tree, Christmas presents, lights, and candles.
And throughout the unit, there are sweet moments for reflecting on faith, kindness, and family traditions—so it feels less like “doing school” and more like gathering together and soaking in the season.
Extra Christmas Books and Reading
One thing I really appreciate about this unit is the reading list, because reading is something we value so deeply as a family—especially during the Christmas season. December always feels like a time to slow down, curl up together, and let stories do the teaching, and this unit makes so much space for that. We’ve been listening to Batholomew’s Passage this season, and pairing that with as many picture books as possible. There’s something about reading aloud—whether it’s a beautiful picture book or a classic Christmas story—that invites conversation in a way worksheets just don’t. It feels cozy, intentional, and very aligned with how we want to learn during this season.
The reading lists include beautiful classics like:
- The Crippled Lamb
- A Little Christmas Tree
- Jotham’s Journey
- Christmas in the Big Woods
- One Wintry Night
- The Gift of the Magi
- The Christmas Train
- God Gave Us Christmas
- Bartholomew’s Passage
What We Liked Best
One of the biggest wins for me with this unit is how well it works for the whole family. I didn’t have to separate kids by age or feel like I was juggling a dozen different lessons. My pre-reader and my older kids could all sit at the table together, and the leveled options made it easy to meet everyone where they were without losing the heart of what we were learning.
I was also so grateful for the lighter workload. I didn’t feel like there was as much teacher guide reading in each lesson, and the workbooks definitely had fewer items. Even so, we definitely picked and chose what we liked best out of the workbooks. December is just not the month for heavy seatwork, and this unit really gets that. There’s less written output and so much more room for good conversations, shared reading, enjoyable crafts, and real teaching moments that happen naturally.
One of our favorite crafts was the Thankful Tree, which I show in the accompanying YouTube review. The unit also included grateful tree ornaments—six for each child on this day—but we modified it so each kid only did one ornament, so in the end we had 14 left over cutouts. Honestly, we took a lot of liberties with the curriculum and pared it down to what we wanted to focus on during the Christmas season. We chose the activities that brought us the most joy.
I loved how the unit sprinkled a focus on gratitude throughout, which felt especially meaningful in a season that so often emphasizes materialism.
Another fun element was the movie discussion guides at the end of each week. Each week offered two options, including The Grinch (2018), The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Star, Polar Express, The Nativity Story, and Arthur Christmas. What I really appreciated about these guides is how they pointed the conversation back to the gospel and the true meaning of Christmas, instead of just watching for entertainment.
But most of all, what I loved is how clearly faith-centered this unit is. This wasn’t just a Christmas theme slapped onto schoolwork. It gently and thoughtfully pointed our hearts back to Christ, which is exactly what I want in our homeschool during this season.
What I Wish Was Different
Honestly, not much—but here are a few thoughts:
We loved doing the letter writing to different family members and friends. I really think their template is well-done. I’m the type that will recreate a printable if I feel like it lacks something, and this one certainly was one I felt complete.
However, I did create a letter to Jesus template that we used to replace some of the gift to Jesus prompts that are sprinkled throughout the unit. A big part of the unit is to craft a gift for Jesus. They do a good job explaining it and giving prompts for helping kids come up with ideas, but the entire idea of giving a gift to Jesus was way too abstract for my young boys. We instead turned it into a kindness challenge and used the letter to Jesus template.
The only other thing I wish were a bit different was the nativity craft that goes along with the unit. I actually was very excited about each child crafting a nativity scene. It was one of the things that drew me to the unit initially. However, the template was flimsy, and the characters didn’t appear to scale with the manager and barn. I couldn’t figure out how to keep it all upright and ended up scraping the project two lessons in. A bit disappointing, but there is so much content that we really didn’t miss it.
This unit is meant to bring meaning and joy to your Christmas season,a nd even with our minor adaptations, it still exceeded my expectations.
Extras We Did
The videos in the app were a must for us. They are embedded in the app, so you don’t have to switch over to YouTube and deal with ads, which is a great feature of the Gather ‘Round app. Even before utilizing Gather ‘Round’s resources, we enjoyed the YouTube channel “Art for Kids Hub” and I was excited to see many of its videos linked. Lesson 7 has one of my favorite drawing lessons of the three wisemen, and my boys did amazing with it!
The curriculum also includes many recipes to try, like sugar cookies, Christmas caramel crackers, hot chocolate snow globe, and chewy gingerbread cookies. Here are a few other recipes that we tried:
Christmas school is about more than just a curriculum. We did a lot of fun activities like baking cookies, going to tree festivals, watching fun movies, walking in malls, and visiting a local nursing home. If you are considering this curriculum, I really encourage you to add as many activities as possible that fit within your family culture.
Final Thoughts: Is Gather ‘Round Christmas Worth It?
At the end of the day, this unit didn’t just fit into our homeschool—it fit into our family. It helped us slow down, sit together, read good books, have meaningful conversations, and keep our hearts centered on Christ in the middle of a very busy season. We loved it, we’ll absolutely come back to it, and I’m so grateful for the memories it helped us create this December.
If you’re looking for a Gather ’Round Christmas unit that feels gentle, meaningful, and faith-filled, this one truly has our whole family’s stamp of approval. From our home to yours, I’m wishing you a very Merry Christmas—full of peace, presence, and the joy that comes from remembering why we celebrate in the first place. 🎄✨
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